Melbourne and Sydney/Bondi

Tassie was my real vacation treat, but I enjoyed other days, weekends mostly while down under.

I was with a work colleague in Melbourne for Australia Day (national day for BBQing :D ) and we grabbed the chance to get tickets to the Australian Open, quarter finals, for a Nadal-Murray game ... cool huh? my first tennis game live ever ... and then goes Nadal and gets injured and retires :( Oh, we also drove a couple laps around the Albert Park F1 circuit ... how cool is that! :)

[Me inside the Australian Open space]

[Celebrating Australia Day during the match]

[Nadal got injured and retired ... would have lost anyway]

[Albert Park F1 Circuit, pit lane]

On another day we went to Philip Island, a couple hours drive from Melbourne ... beach destination for city people (we had a "swim" in the south pacific! what a surf!); host of the Moto GP championship (also check, visited :D ) and most touristic of all, home of the Penguin Parade. Though in other places (like Tassie, New Zealand, ...) you can get maybe closer and even make pictures, here you get really looots of penguins. An average night, some 1000 penguins may come out of the water at sunset and go "home" for a sleep. We didn't see that many, but a good 400, in big groups of 60 or so ... nice cute little penguins :) Tip: don't go for the cheap general admission ... pay extra and get a private tour, you'll sure see more and much closer.

[Here we had a swim ... ]

[The Penguin Parade ... not my photo, you are not allowed - they say penguins go blind with the flash]

Last I wanted to get some Bondi beach surf experience ... the famous surfing beach just outside Sydney. Had everything ... a hotel next to the beach, a full weekend, summer ... except for the leftovers of hurricane "Olga", which dropped in a day more than half the water expected for the whole month, including horrible winds. So, not much done. Next time better ... next time

[Bondi Beach ... after the storm, next day]

[Bondi's Ocean Pool and Bondi's Surf and Rescue :)]

Cesc

Tasmania in 4 days

Tassie ... mainland aussie make it the target for jokes about the "little island" and "double headed people", but it is a beautiful place and with lovely people.

I was there for barely 4 days, so had time to do the highlights on the east cost ... which means lots of kilometers through [tasmanian style] highways (that means sometimes one lane roads with no markings :D ). So, if you are gonna do it ... don't count on doing 110Km/h on average ... it is more like barely 80.

So, my diary:

• Day 1: Hobart aiport to Port Arthur, the convict station ... nice place, creepy place. But it is real aussie history, from when british convicts were sent down under to serve time.
  

[Convict suit for the most dangerous ... up to two years without speaking and in solitude!!]

On the way back, I went to see Tasmanian Devils ... very different from the Warner Bros cartoon character. Strange marsupial, though. Seeing them being feed was quite a show .. Don't miss either on the spectacular cliffs and caves around ... look for the "Remarkable Cave", and if lucky to be there during low-tide, you can walk all the way under it :)

Manage to sleep in nowhere's town (Sorell), just convinient for quick sleep (Pembrooke Hotel) on the way to Freycinet.

[Tassie Devils being fed]

• Day 2: From Sorell to Feycinet National Park, to see among other things Wineglass Bay ... amazing paradisiac beach! 2 hours return walk up a steep track. Totally worth it though! Managed to drive all the way to Launceston.

[Wineglass Bay beach from the lookout ... 1 hour return]

[At Wineglass Bay beach ... 1 hour return, from the lookout. Water was on the cold side :)]

Mental note: all over australia, never let your fuel tank go below half full ... or you could end up sleeping in the middle of the bush. For me, I could spare 20km range when I got to the gas station, but came veeery close :)

• Day 3: Launceston - Craddle Mountain - Launceston ... it is a very nice place ... if you can see the mountains :) I got a really foggy windy day ... anyway, the walk up to Marion Lookout is worth it (and you can say you made the start of the Overlander Track :D ), if not just for some excercise.

[Lake Dove, on the way down from Marions Lookout]

• Day 4: Launceston to Hobart ... Tassie's capital. Nice cute little town. Again a foggy day, though I was lucky I got 10 minutes of clear weather up in Mount Wellington for amazing views.

Next time ... the west coast.

[Hobart bay view from Mount Wellington]

It was short but fun ... next time I'm there, the west coast.

Cesc